Pennsylvania Game News - June 2010 - 28

to drive him to Clinton County to buy his deer. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back; Sal had had enough. I could see that calling me was a hard thing for Sal to do, but I could also see Sal wanted the selling stopped, even if he lost a friendship. I told Sal there was a way we could apprehend the Smiths without Leroy knowing he had helped, but that he would have to take Leroy to buy the deer. I laid out a plan where Sal would drive Leroy to buy the deer and on the way home he would make two rest stops and call me on the phone. The first stop was to let me know if they had a deer and the second when he was about a half hour from his home, so I could set up a roadside check station. If I then found a deer in the vehicle I would treat both Leroy and Sal as suspects during the investigation and I would charge both of them. I also would, however, void the paperwork on Sal so it would only appear as though he was prosecuted. Sal said he would do it. I told Sal I had to contact my law enforcement supervisor and run the operation through him, and also see if I could get some money for him to buy a deer if one was available. I told Sal to find out how much a deer would cost and to let me know. I contacted Lowell Bittner, my law enforcement supervisor at the PGC’s Reading office and ran the case by him. I also requested some marked money

for Sal to use to buy a deer. Lowell told me to go ahead with the plan and to call him when I knew how much money I needed. All the pieces were falling into place. The next day Sal called and told me the price for a deer was $100 for a doe or button buck and $150 for a buck. I told Sal to have Leroy call the Smiths and see if he could get a doe for himself as well, and that I would provide the money. Two days later Sal called and told me Leroy had ordered a deer for him, but that the Smiths wouldn’t guarantee that they would have one but that they would try. He also told me the pick-up day was the first day of deer season. I drove to Reading the next day and received from Lowell Bittner a $100 bill that had the serial numbers recorded and delivered it to Sal. The next thing I did was contact Clinton County WCO John Wasserman. I told him what was going on and he and I then set up a plan for his end of the operation. John said he knew about Skunky Smith and that he was quite the character. The word on the street was that he sold venison, but John had never caught him, and he told me Skunky had passed away, so it would be interesting to see who was now running the poaching operation. The plan was simple. After Sal notified me that they had a deer I would call John and let him know, along with any other information I got from Sal that could be useful. John would then apply for a search warrant and proceed to the Smith residence to look for other deer and the client list, and to investigate the case from his end. All that was left to do was to wait for the first day of deer season. Opening day of the 1979 deer season was bedlam as usual, and yet I had to be available at my telephone when Sal was going to call to let me know if he was on his way back to Lancaster County with a deer.
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - June 2010
